24th January
15:12 GMT -5
"Grayven." Ms Lane looks up at me while her colleagues in the Daily Planet office try to pretend they're not rubbernecking. "What do you want?"
"I need to get hold of Superman really quickly. Would you mind if I threw you off the building?"
She tilts her head to the left, her eyes narrowing. "Oh
har. Did you come here just to make that joke?"
"No. Actually, I wanted to try interesting you in a project I've got going on."
She shrugs. "There's no way Horne can lose the election."
"That's what they said about-."
"
Jonathan Horne is the one politician I'd actually
believe if he told me those girls were in his room to 'get some ice'."
I
snigger. Yeah, that was…
Not the most credible denial ever. "That reminds me of a joke about
John Major-."
"Who?"
Oh. Rrright, he doesn't exist here. "A British politician from Earth Prime. But if you don't know who he is, it.. falls rather flat. The
reason I'm here is that one of my ongoing projects is to try and… Not rehabilitate so much as
refocus certain types of criminal-."
"Like Lex Luthor."
"Ah… I don't believe that he's been
convicted-" I nod. "-but I did have to have
words with him at one point. And now he's being
far more rational about how he applies himself."
"He's getting a space fleet."
"Nothing illegal about a private citizen building spaceships. And a great many people are benefiting from the cheaper electricity."
"There
is something illegal about it if those ships are armed."
"I believe that he intends to build an office on the dark side of the moon, register the ships to the lunar nation and
then install the guns. And given what you know of Superman's career, are you really going to try to argue that Earth
doesn't need a self-defence force?"
"He's founding his own country?"
"It's an interesting bypass. The government of the United States is obliged to enforce the Outer Space Treaty upon its citizens. But if Lex registers all of the guns to a non-terrestrial polity, does it apply?"
"He's still a US citizen. Unless he's planning on renouncing his citizenship?"
"I doubt it-. At least, not in the immediate future. I suppose that if he ever gets to the point where he's spending most of his time in space he
might consider it…" I shake my head. "I don't have any special knowledge there."
"But Luthor's fleet is definitely going to be armed."
"Yes, and with all
sorts of fascinating weapons." I smile. "You humans can be
so creative! It's a marvel. But if we can return to the reason I'm
here..?"
"Rehabilitation. Like you did with Black Adam."
"Theodore Adam and Teth Adom are different men. Do you blame Superman for the things he's done while under the influence?"
"He murdered Kahndaq's government
after he stopped being controlled."
I smile self-depreciatingly. "I'm hardly one to criticise
that."
"What
is happening to the British government?"
"The coalition government? They'll remain-."
"No, the one you deposed."
"That.. won't be decided until after the next General Election. I understand that Mister Talbot wants them charged under pre-existing laws. I'd just have killed them all, but it isn't my decision."
And if anything disproves the idea that Red Lanterns are mindless berserkers, that's it. He didn't even hesitate when the technically-not-acting Prime Minister asked him about it.
"And exactly who
else have you rehabilitated?"
"Circe." Ms Lane blinks, then her eyes narrow slightly. "I'm a little surprised more hasn't been made of that."
"Circe. The witch who turns men into animal-men."
"She doesn't do that any more, and she turned back-" Most of. "-the ones she had."
"I don't remember hearing anything about her being arrested. Or decapitated."
"She behaved erratically due to a curse that had been placed upon her. Once I worked out how to bypass the curse, she no longer felt the need to."
"So she gets off scot free."
I shrug. "Despite what you might think, I'm not particularly vengeful. I'm a pragmatist. I killed Klarion because there was no
way he was going to be anything other than a murderous little shit. I don't see the point in trying to rehabilitate people who can't be rehabilitated. And I'm a little frustrated that I had to have Mister Tuckman oppose plans to give Mister Napier bionic limbs." I shake my head in frustration. "Honestly, what sort of idiot thinks that giving the Joker new arms is a good idea?"
"You might have to rip them off again."
"If I'd ripped them off he'd be dead. I
crushed them. Anyway, there's someone new I'm working with at the moment, and I was wondering if you'd like to meet them."
"I can get interviews with Luthor any day of the week."
"I'm sure that you
can. I wasn't talking about him."
"Fine. Who is it this time?"
"Black Manta."
She frowns. "Who?"
24th January
23:21 GMT +3
Ms Lane follows me through the boom tube onto the… Bridge of the oil tanker. Two of Mr Hyde's soldiers are guarding the bridge, a third has the captain under guard while several members of his crew man the stations. Mr Hyde gives Ms Lane a moment to take in her environment before he turns away from the bridge window.
"Ms Lane."
"Black Manta. I don't think companies pay ransoms on oil tankers any more."
"Actually, they do and then
say they don't. But I won't be ransoming The Queen's Grace." He reaches up and takes off his helmet. I felt that visual transition was quite important; show himself as a supervillain
changing into something else. "They were cleaning out their oil tanks at sea; illegally dumping hundreds of gallons of waste oil."
"And you care about that since
when?"
"I'm a mercenary, Ms Lane. I don't care about anything except my crew unless someone's paying me to."
"Grayven said he was trying to rehabilitate you."
"Grayven wants me to take legal jobs. Which I can't do at the moment because I've got international arrest warrants on me."
"You attacked the capital of Atlantis."
"I got hired by one side in a civil war. Whatever King Orin likes to think, Orm had plenty of support in Atlantis. If Orm had won, I'd have had a major payday. He lost, so I'm a criminal."
"You were a criminal before that."
"I was a mercenary before that. Or a.. private security operative, if you want to be polite about it. Governments say all kinds of things are against the law, except when they're the ones doing them."
"So what's
this about?"
"This is a sign I'm willing to go legitimate. Useful work for the community."
"Which you're getting paid for."
"If you think Grayven's paying me as much as I could get for quietly ransoming an oil tanker, you've got another thing coming. But I've reached the point in my life where the prospect of spending all my time in a submarine isn't as appealing as it used to be. I'm trying to show that I'm willing to limit myself to legitimate work."
"If you get let off all your crimes."
"I'm willing to negotiate. But I don't want to pretend I've had some kind of moral revelation here." He shrugs. "It's a move from high risk high reward to low risk low reward. The costs of staying outside the law have mounted up and I'd rather stop paying them."
I smile. Mr Hyde isn't one of the world's greatest speakers, but he's sticking to our agreed angle. I
send the files on the ship to the relevant port authorities, then step back towards the boom tube.
"I'll leave you two to get better acquainted. Back in an hour."
